Engramma. A Presentation

Beginning and History of the Magazine

Engramma – full title: “La Rivista di Engramma Engramma. La tradizione classica nella memoria occidentale” ISSN 1826-901X – is the online journal of the "Centro studi classicA | Iuav" (Architecture, Culture, and Classic Tradition) – of the Iuav University of Venice: it is a research laboratory that includes scholars of different backgrounds and of young researchers, coordinated by Monica Centanni.

Founded in the year 2000, following the first parallel iconological researches made by the Classical Tradition Seminars (then held at the Ca 'Foscari University of Venice. On the beginnings of Engramma see Editoriale: Engramma da 0 a 100). Since 2002, the editorial department of Engramma is at the Iuav University of Venice; and since 2006, the magazine is the scientific core of classicA.

Since its first issue (September 2000), the magazine is published in monthly / bimonthly digital editions. All issues and all contributions are fully available online, in the Archivioopen access, with indexes organized by subject and author. Contributions are selected through call for papers, invitations and authors’ individual proposals, and are evaluated by blind peer review (see Policy and Editorial procedures). The issues of the magazine are gradually made available in PDF format in the Library page (Libreria) which also diplays other publishing series related to Engramma.

Research themes

“Engramma” focuses its research on the classical tradition in Western culture: the persistence, renewal and new formal interpretations, themes and topics in Art, Architecture and Ancient Literature, form Antiquity to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and to modern times.

Zum Bild das Wort: one of the mottos adopted by Aby Warburg for his mission recalls the need to restore “the word to the image”. In the articles published in “Engramma” images are treated not as an illustrative apparatus, but as the principle object of study and research communication. The Warburg research style, which aims to establish an “alchemical marriage” between image and word, finds online publications – through computer technologies that open up to new horizons of hypertext – as the best suited way to broadcast the research results inspired by the same Method.

The name ENGRAMMA and motto FULGOR ILLE

One of the methodological directions of the Classical Tradition studies is the lesson of Aby Warburg (1866-1929), and it is from a suggestion - collected by the same Warburg from the scientific vocabulary contemporary to him - that the magazine takes its name. According to the definition proposed in 1908 by neurologist Richard Semon in his Mneme study, every experiential event acts on the brain matter by leaving a trace on it: an “engramma”. The analysis that Semon applies to the nervous matter of the individual was extended by Warburg to the whole of cultural memory: “engramma” is the mark – symbol and image – in which we can recognize a charge of energy and an emotional experience that stick to cultural memory as a persistent sign. Forms, themes, symbols, and formulas of pathos from Classic Art reverberate in later times, pivoting on the XV Century, the golden age of the 'rebirth' of Antiquity, and together draw a map of Western memory leitmotifs – myths, figures, words, symbols – in an investigation field that opens on cultural resonances between Renaissance, Ancient and Contemporary.

The Ancient demonic breath, the power of its myths and images, does not dissolve in the ages of oblivion, but disguises itself and endures in the impulse of Epiphany and Representation: it’s the trace of a broken line, karst at times, that draws the chart of the themes and figures from Classical Antiquity in their rhapsodic returns; twisted threads and connections that make up the diverse fabric of Western memory.

The motto FULGOR ILLE, that resides in the center of the symbol of the Magazine, is based on a quote by Giordano Bruno, recorded in full in the stone circle on which clings the ouroboros:

"Nihil vincitur, nisi aptissime praeparatum, quia fulgor ille non eodem rebus omnibus communicatur modo.
"Nothing is binding if it is not fully and properly prepared for that bond: it is a splendor that is not communicated to all things in the same way"
[Giordano Bruno, De vinculis in genere 33, II].

Direction, Editing Staff, and Scientific Committee

The Magazine is directed by Monica Centanni, Greek scholar and Classical philologist, professor of Iconology and Classical Tradition at the Iuav University of Venice. Since its foundation, scholars from various disciplines, young researchers, and students form the Editorial staff of “Engramma" (Redazione di Engramma) taking care of all aspects of publication, graphics and layout.

The National and International spread of the magazine is confirmed by access statistics, which on average amount to more than 20,000 hits per month, from more than 25 countries all over the world (accesses are certified by Iuav University website tech management). In collaboration with the Engramma Cultural Association (Associazione culturale Engramma) the magazine promotes various cultural events: among these, the "Luminar. Internet e Umanesimo" series of conferences and the “Variazioni sul Mito” theatrical performances.